1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates, generally, to pressure regulators and, more specifically, to a pressure regulator having an integrated control valve with adjustable downstream pressure build and quick exhaust capabilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pressure regulators are well known in the art and are employed in numerous environments to regulate a pneumatic supply pressure to a predetermined system pressure. The system pressure is then supplied to various pneumatically actuated devices for operating same. It is also known in the art to employ flow control valves which are separate from the pressure regulators for further attenuating system pressure during start up of a pneumatically actuated device. These flow control valves act to slowly build the system pressure during start up, for example, at the beginning of a production shift. In this way, the pneumatically actuated devices are not shocked by a violent rise in pressure from 0 psi to the predetermined system pressure.
Similarly, it is also known to employ system control valves to supply system pressure. These valves are actuated, for example, during production start up. These valves may also include means for quickly exhausting system pressure, reducing it to 0 psi. System control valves sometimes are electrically operated or they may be manually operated. Additionally, system control valves sometimes employ means for locking the valve in the exhausted position. System control valves are actuated, for example, during the end of a production shift, during a break in production or any other circumstance which requires a quick end of the supply of system pressure to the pneumatic devices.
In present applications known in the related art, the pressure regulator, control valve, start up flow control valves, and system exhaust valves are each separately designed and engineered and selectively employed remote from one another in any given pneumatically actuated system. Each component is also separately controlled. Thus, these distinct components are usually incorporated at various positions relative to one another in the pneumatically actuated system, as the case may be, and interconnected via conduits or other flow passages.
While these separate components have generally worked well in the past, there remains an ongoing need in the art to simplify pneumatic systems and thereby lower costs of manufacture and/or assembly by eliminating separate components, shortening flow paths and thereby reducing related hardware.